I think we'd be struggling to hand over Basra in a stable state in 10 years time, let alone now.
The unfortunate reality is the militias, most like Moqtada al Sadr's people primarily, are the holders of power (possibly rightly so) and no doubt the majority of the Shia population would rather live under them than the UK, US or any of our cronies. We are flogging a dead horse in trying to install "our kind" of government and unless we are willing to work with the likes of Sadr, we might as well not be there.
Happy to get out. All we ever were was a convenient condom for GWB to enter the country with in the first place, an illusion of a coalition, and another party to be dragged into the molasses. Why wait another 10 years and a ten-fold increase in casualties to find ourselves in the same position we are now? Would that make the present war dead any more justified?
As for Bush's comparisons with Vietnam and Cambodia regarding an early withdrawal, don't get me started. If that is the level of historical understanding and perspective in the US then I am truly horrified and not at all surprised this debacle occurred in the first place
